Mom's Birthday Eggs Benedict

1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 English muffins, split, toasted
6 eggs, poached
In large skillet,cook peppers and onion in butter. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until crisp-tender. (I think mine got a little more done than that!!) Keep warm.
Melt butter in small saucepan; blend in flour and pepper. Cook and stir over medium heat until smooth and bubbly, about 1 mintue. Gradually add milk. Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks. Return yolk mixture to saucepan, blending well. Cook until mixture bubbles, about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. stir in lemon juice and mustard.
To serve, spoon cooked pepper mixture onto each toasted muffin half; top each with poached egg and sauce.
6 servings

Baked Coconut Millet Pudding

This is a favorite of our family. Dad mentioned that, "it doesn't really even taste like millet!" Enjoy!!

3/4 cup millet
3 cups milk or coconut milk
1/4 cup honey or agave
1 cup raw shredded coconut
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

PM In a large pot heat milk slowly, add millet, agave, coconut, and salt. Mix together until well blended. After turning the heat off add vanilla. Pour into oiled 8x8 glass pan. Cover and leave till morning
AM Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Serve hot or chilled. Top with whipping cream or yogurt and fruit!!
This can easily be doubled and put into a 9x13 pan.

Sunrise Pancakes

Saturday's have traditionaly been our pancake day. As maple syrup is rather expensive and not especially healthy for you, our family enjoys dressing our pancakes up with yogurt and fruit!! At the end of the pancake recipe I have some ideas that we tried.

1 cup pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons agave
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Combine eggs, agave, yogurt and water in medium bowl. Whisk in butter. Pour liquid ingredients, all at once, into dry ingredients; stir until moistened. For extra fluffy pancakes, cover and let sit overnight.
Preheat griddle or large skillet over medium heat; grease lightly. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot griddle for each pancake; spread batter out to make 5-inch circles. Cook until tops of pancakes are bubbly and appear dry; turn and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Makes about 8 pancakes
Just a little hint: try to reduce the amount of flipping you do!!
I used strawberry-banana greek yogurt in between the pancakes and topped the stack with fresh strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and pecans. Oh and I was going to mention I didn't have to wrap up any left over pancakes!!

Pineapple Coconut Rice Pudding

This pudding was made in a crock-pot!! We had this for breakfast, so the night before I put it all together and turned the crock-pot on low. It ended up cooking for 7 hours, and I think that was perfect. Enjoy!!

1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 can (13.5 ounces) coconut milk
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup uncooked arborio rice (I confess, we didn't have any arborio rice, so I used brown. It was a wee bit crunchy!!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup agave or honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Toasted coconut

Placce pineapple with juice, coconut milk, evaporated milk, rice, eggs, agave or honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into crockpot; mix well. Cover; cook on high 3 to 4 hours or until thickened and rice is tender.
Stir until blended. Serve warm or chilled. Top with toasted coconut!!

Orange Cranberry Scones

You'll notice in this recipe that the fats are supposed to be very cold. This makes a flakier scone. Also, it's handy that you can make these scones, stick them in the freezer, and pull them out when you want to use them. All you have to do is bake them!! =)

3 1/4 cups pastry flour
1/4 buttermilk powder or milk powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup agave or honey
1/2 cup orange juice
4 tablespoons (half a stick) frozen butter
1/4 cup cold shortening
Milk and cinnamon-sugar for topping

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and orange juice.
Grate the butter into the dry ingredients; then, cut the shortening in. You want pieces that remain the size of peas. If you cut the sortening in until the flour is evenly crumbly, you'll have mealy rather than flaky scones.
Add the liquid ingredients to the flour-fat mixture. Be careful not to over-mix or over knead. Gently fold everything together until the mixture is mostly moistened a bit of the flour may remain dry.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold and gather it together until it's cohesive. Divide the dough in half and place both halves on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat each half into a 7-inch circle approximately 1/2-inch thick, then cut each circle into 8 wedges. Separate the wedges , leaving about a half inch between each wedge.
Brush the scones with milk and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Bake them for 7 minutes, then turn the oven off, and without opening the door, let the scones remain in the oven for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or until they're golden brown.
Serve the scones immediately or within a few hours, for best flavor. Conveniently enough, scone dough lends itself to being made ahead, shaped, and either frozen or refrigerated overnight before baking. For scones refrigerated overnight, bae for tthe same amount of time for frozen, add 2 minutes to the baking time before you turn the oven off!
Makes 16 scones

Recipe Coming Soon

You may ask, "are those biscuits on a griddle?" No, they are not biscuits. Well, I won't keep you held in suspense for long! Does anyone want the recipe for these simple whole wheat English muffins??
Recipe will be coming soon with pictures of finished product!! =)

Baked Doughnuts

I first found this recipe on Milk and Cookies, and was thrilled to find yeast baked doughnuts, rather than nasty fried ones. I changed the recipe a tiny bit to suit our family better. =)

3 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups milk, warmed
1 packet yeast (the equivalent measurement is 2 1/4 teaspoons.)
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Sift flour, nutmeg and seas salt together in a large bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Place ½ cup of the milk in another bowl and stir in the yeast. Set aside.
Stir in the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture.
Whisk in the eggs using a fork and add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients.
Mix until the flour has taken up the yeast mixture.
If your dough is too dry add a little bit of milk at a time. If your dough is too sticky, then add a little bit of flour, until the dough becomes smooth enough to handle without sticking too much to your hands. If you add too much flour it'll be too tough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for two minutes.
Shape into a ball and place into a lightly oiled or buttered bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise in a warm area away from drafts.
Allow an hour or so for the dough to double in size, depending on the temperature.

Prepare baking trays with parchment paper.
When the dough has risen, remove the dough from the bowl and punch down. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about ½-inch thickness.
Using your cutter cut out the donuts. I've used both the regular doughnut sized cutter and also a smaller one. Just which ever you prefer. Ensure that the holes are at least 3/4 inches in diameter as that the holes will close more after rising and baking.
Cover trays with a clean cloth and allow to rise for another 45 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
Bake the donuts for about 8 minutes; do not allow them to get brown.
While donuts are baking, set up your butter and combine sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.
Remove donuts from oven and allow to cool for 3 minutes.
Dip each donut into the melted butter and give it a quick toss in the cinnamon sugar.

Cheesy Herb Biscuits

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, OR 2 tablespoons dried chives
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

4 oz. (half of regular sized package) cream cheese

3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 425. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, including the grated cheese, until everything is evenly distributed. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in the butter and cream cheese, mixing until crmbly; some large chunks of cheese and butter can remain. Pour in the milk while tossing with a fork; the dough should remain a bit crumbly but hold together when squeezed. Add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk if needed.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and fold it over a few times so that you can be sure it's totally cohesive. Roll it out 3/4-inch thick. Cut it into 2-inch biscuits. Place the biscuits on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes, until they're lightly browned.

Makes twenty 2-inch biscuits

New and Improved

Thank you for visiting my new and improved Kitchen Joys blog.  Be sure to visit our traditional family recipes at my archived Kitchen Joys.  Stay tuned for many more delicious recipes!!!  Hope you all will enjoy my new, updated Kitchen Joys!!!

Black bean and Corn Salsa

1 (15 oz) can black beans
1 (15 oz) can corn
3/4 cup finely diced red onion
3/4 cup red or green bell pepper
1 jalapeno, minced (or for spice 2 jalapenos)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature and add a few sprigs of cilantro for garnish.